(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 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We're so glad that you are with us. And of course we'd like to begin the service with a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads together and begin the service with prayer together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you and we thank you for allowing us to gather together today. Lord, we pray that you would bless this day, the service. Lord, we pray that you would bless the singing, of course the preaching, and everything that's done today. That it would bring us closer to you, that it would honor and glorify your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn to song 215. Two, one, five, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Two hundred and fifteen, sing it out on the first. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget. After I wandered in darkness away, Jesus my Savior I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend, he met the need of my arm. Shout as the spelling which I am telling, he made all the darkness depart, sing it out. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Good on the second, born of the Spirit with life from above into God's family divine. Just by feeling Calvary's love, oh, what a standing is mine. Then the transaction so quickly was made, when as a sinner I came. Took of the upper abrasive proper, he sent me on to his dear name. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Sing it well on the last. Now I've a hope that will surely endure, after the passing of time. Good, I have a future in heaven for sure, wherein those mansions sublime. And it's because of that wonderful day, when at the cross I believe. Rich is eternal and restless, eternal from his precious hand. Sing it out. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. And it's strong. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Good singing. Amen. All right, well let's take our bulletins this morning. We'll look at some announcements quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, Psalm 119 11, Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m. We're glad, of course, that you're with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church. We do invite you to be back tonight for the evening service. The evening service is different than the morning service. Different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached. Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching of the word of God. Then, of course, we invite you to be with us on Wednesday for the midweek service. We call the Sunday evening service the most exciting service of the week. We call the Wednesday evening service the most encouraging service of the week. And we'd love you to join us for all of these services, of course. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. Then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 2 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays are postponed for now, but Sunday there is a soul winning time. So if you'd like to go soul winning this afternoon, there'll be an opportunity for you to be able to do that. And, of course, if you are a first time guest, we've got several guests with us this morning. If you're a guest, we are so glad that you are with us and we have a gift we'd like to give you. As you walk out of the church building this morning, if you go out our main foyer, you'll see a little table set up and on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it and we wanted to give this to you as a gift. So please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card, which is inserted in your bulletin. If you need a pen, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen. You're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well. And we're not going to do anything odd with your info. We would like to just have a record of attendance. We actually would like to send you a little gift, but we need your information to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card out. When we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate. Or if you'd like, I'll be standing at the main door back there, greeting people on the way out. I'd love for you to come by and say hello. And of course, you can hand this to me if you would like. If you look at the bulletin there, we of course are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up where these back rooms here have windows set up so that you can watch the service and listen to it. And if you have a child that's been distracting during the service, let's not allow them to be a distraction. Let's get up quickly and move towards one of those mother baby rooms or daddy room. If you're not sure where those are at, you can look at the back of the bulletin and you'll see a layout of our church building. It'll show you where the mother baby rooms are, where the daddy room is. It'll show you where the restrooms are. So please make sure you use that as needed. If you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. And the baptistry is filled. The water is warm. We've got everything you need to be baptized. If you'd like to speak to somebody about baptism on your communication card on the back, you can check off that you'd like information about baptism. And we'll follow up with you and talk to you about that. If you've already spoken to somebody, you know you need to be baptized, then all you need to do is at the end of the service, after the preaching, while we're singing the last song, if you step out those doors, one of our staff guys will meet you there and we will get you situated for baptism. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, we just want you to be aware of several things coming up. Of course, we have the annual Lord's Supper service on Wednesday, March 27th. We want you to be aware of that. We do the Lord's Supper here once a year, the Wednesday before Easter, and that is coming up. So make plans to attend. Even if you don't normally come in on Wednesday night, we want to encourage you to be here for the Lord's Supper service. Don't miss that. And then, of course, we have Easter coming up, which means we have our Easter soul-winning push scheduled on Thursday and Friday, March 28th and 29th at 6 p.m., and then Saturday morning, March 30th at 10 a.m. And we'd like to get as many of our soul-winners, if not all of our soul-winners, out for as many of these days. So I want to encourage you to just make a plan to be at one, two, or three of all these soul-winning pushes right before Easter as we invite people to church. Of course, this year, this Easter service is not just Easter, but it's also the grand opening of our building. And you should have a little stack of cards like this in your bulletin, three cards paper-clipped together. And we're giving these to you every week and asking that you would take these and invite somebody to Easter, invite somebody to church. The best time to invite somebody to church is Easter. No one's going to be mad at you for inviting them to church on Easter Sunday. If you have a friend or a co-worker, someone you've been thinking about inviting to church, this is the time to do it. So you can use these cards as a tool to do that. Of course, we have the Next Generation Youth Rally coming up. I want you to be aware of that. And make sure you register your teens if you've not yet done that. I think, I don't know what the exact number is, but I think we were somewhere around 63 teenagers signed up for the Youth Rally. And that's a great number there. Of course, we're family integrated, so their parents and siblings are welcome to be a part of that. But we've got teens coming from all over the country, and it's going to be a great couple of days. So make sure. We even have a teenager coming from Europe, all right? So we've got kids coming from all over. And it's going to be a good time, Next Generation Youth Rally, make sure that you are aware of that. And then also, if you'd like to volunteer with the Youth Rally, there is a volunteer opportunity. Of course, we're having two days of events and two services, or four services really, two morning services and two evening services on April 9th and 10th. So if you'd like to help clean the building on Wednesday morning, April 10th, that'll be after the first day in preparation for the second day at 830 a.m. We would really appreciate your help, and you can sign up to do that on your communication card on the back. There's a place there for you to volunteer to clean the building during the Youth Rally. We would really appreciate your help with that, so please make sure you do that. And then, of course, if you've not yet gone back and checked your name on the nine chapters a day clipboard back there, make sure you do that. Check for your name and help us with that. Make sure you mark it off. You can check it off if it's right. If it's wrong, you can fix it. But we'd appreciate your help with that. There's other things there for you to look at. There's choir practice today at 5 p.m., orchestra practice at 5 p.m. They're practicing for Easter. Make sure you're aware of that. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of March today is Caleb Urquiza's birthday, March 17th. So happy birthday to him. And then this week we have Madison Pendleton's birthday, March 19th, and Nozuri O2's birthday on March 23rd. Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at. We do want you to just remember to help us with the kids, make sure that they're not running down the hallways. We don't want anybody to get injured and make sure that the kids are not going upstairs. The upstairs are off limits to everybody, but especially children, we don't want them to be going up there, especially the baptistry area. So if you could help us with that, we would appreciate it. I do just have one additional personal note or request, prayer request, if you wouldn't mind, and that is that I'm asking the Church family to just keep my wife in prayer, if you would not mind. She's not here today, and some of you may already know this, but 13 days ago on March 5th, she tore her gastrocnemius, which is a muscle in her calf, and of course went to the hospital for that, and she got what she needed regarding that. But the swelling in her leg, just the pain got a lot worse, the swelling got a lot worse, to the point where I just had to take her to the emergency room a few days ago on March 14th. We were there till 3 a.m., and she was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, which is a blood clot in the vein, and they have her on blood thinners for six months is what they put her on medication, and she's just in a lot of pain, she can't walk. So if you wouldn't mind just keeping her in prayer, she'll try to be back to church as soon as she can. She probably won't be soul winning for several weeks until she recovers, but we would just appreciate your prayers, and just so you're aware of where she is and what's going on with her. I think that's it for all of the announcements. So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week, and we're going to sing, He is mine as we prepare to receive the offering this morning. Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. Down on high, came to earth to bleed and die. He said, Father, not thy will, but thy begun. He is mine. I am blessed beyond all measure. He is mine. I'm born and full and free through the blood He shed for me. I shall be, He is mine. Let's sing it out on the second. Through God's mercy and His grace, He's prepared for us a place to strive for matchless beauty then. We will praise the perfect Lamb, King of kings, the great I am. He has made our land and ours too. Let's sing it out. He is mine. He is mine. I am blessed beyond all measure. He is mine. I'm born and full and free through the blood He shed for me. Save forever, I shall be, He is mine. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love You. We thank You for allowing us to gather together today. Lord, we pray that You bless the offering, the gift, and the giver. And Lord, I do ask for my wife. I pray that You'd put Your healing hand over her, help her recover soon, Lord, and help her not to be in pain. Lord, we ask that You be with the service today, the preaching, the fellowship. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Turn in your Bibles to Numbers, chapter 26. Numbers, chapter 26. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand. And an usher will bring you one. Numbers, chapter 26. This morning we'll read verses 1 through 33. Numbers 26. Just keep your hands up and an usher will bring you a Bible. Numbers, chapter 26. The Bible reads, And it came to pass after the plague, that the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their father's house, all that are able to go to war in Israel. And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward, as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt. Reuben the eldest son of Israel, the children of Reuben, Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Haconites, of Paolo the family of the Paoloites, of Hezron the family of the Hezronites, of Carmi the family of the Carmites. These are the families of the Reubenites, and they that were numbered of them were forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty. And the sons of Paolo, Eliab, and the sons of Eliab, Nimuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron and the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died. What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign. Notwithstanding, the children of Korah died not. The sons of Simeon after their families, of Nemuel the family of the Nemulites, of Jamon the family of the Jamonites, of Hakan the family of the Haconites, of Zerah the family of the Zarites, of Shaul the family of the Shaulites. These are the families of the Simonites, twenty and two thousand and two hundred. The children of Gad after their families, of Ziphon the family of the Ziphonites, of Haggai the family of the Haggites, of Shunai the family of the Shunites, of Osni the family of the Osnites, of Eri the family of the Erites, of Arad the family of the Arites, of Aralai the family of the Aralites. These are the families of the children of Gad, according to those that were numbered of them, forty thousand and five hundred. The sons of Judah were Ur and Onan, and Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Judah after their families were, of Shelah the family of the Shelanites, of Pherez the family of the Pherezites, of Zerah the family of the Zarhites. And the sons of Pherez were, of Hezron the family of the Hezronites, of Hamil the family of the Hamilites. These are the families of Judah, according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and sixteen thousand and five hundred. Of the sons of Iskar after their families, of Tolah the family of the Tolites, of Puah the family of the Punites, of Jashub the family of the Jashuabs, of Shimron the family of the Shimronites. These are the families of Iskar, according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and four thousand and three hundred. Of the sons of Zebulon after their families, of Sared the family of the Sardites, of Elan the family of the Elanites, of Jehil the family of the Jehlites, these are the families of the Zebulites, according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and five thousand and five hundred. The sons of Joseph after their families, were Manasseh and Ephraim. Of the sons of Manasseh, of Makar the families of the Makarites, and Makar begat Gilead. Of Gilead came the family of the Gileonites, these are the sons of Gilead, of Jezer the family of the Jezerites, of Helac the family of the Helachites, and of Esraeel, the family of the Erelytes, and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites, and of Shemida the family of the Shemitites, and of Hephir, the family of the Hephronites. And Zeloshaphat, the son of Hephir, had no sons but daughters. And the names of the daughters of the Zephilah were Malah and Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah. Let's pray. Lord God Almighty, thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to come together. Please bless Pastor and the message. Please let it bring glory and honor to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we were there in Numbers chapter 26 again, and that was not a mistake. We were in Numbers chapter 26 last week, and if you remember last week, we looked at this chapter, and last week I had mentioned to you that Numbers 26 is the kind of chapter that in the rare instance that a preacher would preach through the book of Numbers is the type of chapter that they would skip and the type of chapter that they would not focus on. And of course, I reminded you last week that we believe here at Meredith Baptist Church and the Bible teaches in 2 Timothy 3 16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness. We believe that all Scripture is profitable, and we can learn from all of it. So I preached out of Numbers 26 last week. We actually covered the entire chapter. We covered the main emphasis of the chapter, and to be honest with you, this is the type of chapter that when I began to look at it and study, I'm always amazed by the Word of God because when I begin to study the chapter for a sermon or a Bible study like this, oftentimes a chapter like this, when I first read it, I think to myself, what am I gonna say about this? And after I end up digging into it and looking at it and studying it and praying about it, you know, here we are now. I've got two sermons I'm gonna preach out of this chapter, so that should go to prove that there is all sorts of treasure in the Word of God, and we need to be willing to dig into it. I'm gonna ask that you just kind of bear with me. Of course, this should not be a surprise to you, but just my allergies are flaring up very badly, and my wife can't sleep at night because she's in pain. I can't sleep at night because I can't breathe. I looked at her this morning. I said, this must be what it feels like to get old, and we're just we're just falling apart, but anyway, please keep her in prayer, and I would appreciate your help with that. I want you to notice here in Numbers 26, and like I said, last week we covered the primary purpose of the chapter. We covered the vast majority of the chapter, but there were some portions of the chapter that that we skipped, just some things that had nothing to do with the census. Of course, we know that the main application of the chapter has to do with the census and the numbering of the people, but I want you to notice that there is another theme in this chapter, and I'd like to highlight it for you. If you notice there in Numbers 26 and verse 5, and like I said, we've already gone through the whole chapter, so this morning I'm just gonna focus in on a very specific subject. Numbers 26 and verse 5, the Bible says this. Of course, this is the first of the 12 tribes that are mentioned. I'm not gonna go through all 12 tribes this morning again, but I want you to just notice this theme in verse 5. The Bible says, Ruben, the eldest son of Israel, and of course we're looking at a census in this chapter where they're numbering the people, and they're doing it through tribes and through families of those tribes. But notice it says, the eldest son of Israel, the children of Ruben, Hanuk, whom cometh, notice just this this theme, the family of the Hanukites, of of Palu, the family of the Paluites, of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites, of Carmi, the family of the Carmites. These are the families of the Rubenites, and they that were numbered of them were forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty, look at verse 8, the sons of Palu, Eliab. And like I said, I'm not gonna go through and look at every time that this word comes up, but I want you to notice how often the word family or families or son or even the word daughter comes up in this passage. Look down at verse number 30 just real quickly. Numbers 26 and verse 30, the Bible says, these are the sons of Gilead, of Jezir, the family of the Jezirites, of Helich, the family of the Helichites, of Azrael, the family of the Azraelites, and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites, of Sheminah, the family of the Sheminites, and of Hephir, the family of the Hephirites. And then notice here in verse number 33, we see something that's even more unique when you look at a census in the Bible, and we even have the names of daughters mentioned. Verse 33, and Zelophehad, the son of Hephir, had no sons but daughters, and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Melah and Noah and Hagla and Melchiah and Terzan. Let me say this, tonight I'm gonna be preaching an entire sermon on the subject of Zelophehad and the daughters of Zelophehad, but what I want to highlight for you is that this chapter has a secondary theme in it, and it is a theme of family, a theme of the families, and what I'd like to do this morning is I'd like to preach a sermon on the subject of parenting from Numbers 26, and I'm gonna preach a sermon entitled Principles About Parenting, Principles About Parenting, and let me just give a couple of introductory statements as we come in. First of all, I want you to notice that I'm being very specific about the sermon title. It's principles about parenting, not principles for parenting, or not principles on the subject of parenting. Over the years, I've preached a lot at our church on the subject of the family and on marriage and on parenting, and I've given a lot of practical application advice. If you find yourself in the stage of life or the season of life where you are parenting a child, I've taught on that subject a lot. This sermon is gonna be a little different in the sense that I'm not preaching on how to parent a child, but I'm teaching some principles that I believe are highlighted here on the subject about parenting in general, and I think that this would be helpful for everyone to understand and everybody to know. Now obviously, if you are currently parenting a child, then this is gonna be super helpful to you. Let me just say this. Even if you have no children yet and one day the Lord may give you children, this is a good sermon for you to be aware of and learn these things, but even if your children are grown, you say my children are grown out of the home, this sermon is gonna be applicable to you, and we're gonna talk about adult children. We're also gonna talk about grandchildren. Of course, these things will apply to grandchildren, and look, you say, well, I don't have any children at all, and I'm not gonna have children. Well, then just get up and leave. No, I'm just kidding. Don't do that. Well, here's the thing about you is that you come to a family integrated church where you've got about a hundred and some odd kids running around all around you, and you've got kids being raised all around you, so this sermon applies to you, too, because you should know these things about parents and their children and what the Bible teaches about parenting, and like I said, this is not a sermon where I'm gonna give you a lot of practical application on how to parent your children. I've done that a lot over the years. This is a sermon that I believe maybe I haven't done a lot of, and I just want to give you some principles about parenting, some principles about parenting. Now, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna, before I give you principles about parenting, I'm gonna show you four examples of parents in this passage, in this chapter, Numbers 26. There are four examples of parents, and we're gonna go through those, and then after I've given you the four examples, then I'm gonna give you four principles about parenting, four examples of parenting to begin with, four principles about parenting, and if you're interested, I encourage you to take notes on the back of your course the week there's a place for you to write these things down. We'll begin in verse number nine. I'd like you to notice the first example of parenting here. Keep in mind, this is a census, and we're being given a documentation of the families and the members of families, the numbers of men 20 years old and upward at the end of the wilderness wanderings of 40 years, the 40 years in the wilderness, but in the midst of this census, we are given some information, or what is brought up is some examples of parents and their children. Notice the first one there in Numbers 26 verse 9. The Bible says this, and the sons of Eliab, Namuel, and notice the words here, Dathan and Abiram. Now if you've been with us through the book of Numbers, these names should sound familiar to you. That is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, and I mentioned this last week that these were famous for the wrong reason. They weren't famous for something good, they were famous for something bad. Notice it says here, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, and then the Bible says this, when they strove against the Lord, and by the way let me just say this, every time that you fight against spiritual leadership in your life, you're not fighting against Moses, you're not fighting against Aaron, you're not fighting against pastor or fighting against spiritual leadership in your life, you're really fighting against the Lord, and that is a consistent theme we see here in the book of Numbers. We see it here, the Bible says they strove against Moses and against Aaron, but they really strove against the Lord. Look at verse 10, and the earth opened her mouth. Of course we studied this earlier in Numbers, and swallowed them up together with Korah when that company died. What time the fire devoured 250 men, and they became a sign, and here's the story. If you remember Korah rose up, and what was Korah's problem? Korah was a Levite, but he wanted to be a priest. If you remember, the priests were the spiritual authority. They were kind of equivalent to, in the New Testament, a pastor, and then the Levite was the helper of the priests. That would be equivalent to like a deacon or a staff person, and God had said that Korah and his family were to be Levites, but he wasn't content simply being a Levite. He wanted to be more. He had his sights set on a different position, and he wanted to be a priest, and he tried to usurp the authority of Moses. He rebelled, he led a rebellion against Moses, and of course we know that he had Dathan and Abiram with him. He had 250 other princes with him. He got the children of Israel to sympathize with him, and the Bible says there's a big showdown, and of course the Lord caused it that the earth would open up its mouth, and Korah and Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up, and they went alive into the pit, the Bible says. Then God sent fire and consumed the 250 princes that were with them, so this is a big rebellion that happened. I just want you to notice that the last part, the last word there in verse number 10, or just the last phrase there, and they became a sign, and I want to say to you, especially young people, make sure that you be careful not to live your life in such a way that you're a sign. You say, what does that mean that they were a sign? They were a bad example. They became the person that others pointed to and say, be careful. You don't want to end up like Korah. Be careful. You don't want to end up like Dathan and Abiram, and look, in your Christian life, you might end up becoming a sign where people point at you someday and say, be careful. You don't want to end up like brother so-and-so. Careful. You don't want to end up like sister so-and-so. Now, here's what's interesting about this story. This story, which is well known in the book of Numbers about Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, is brought up, but then the Bible says in verse 11, notwithstanding, the children of Korah died not. Notwithstanding, the children of Korah died not. Here's what's interesting about this passage, and I talked about it back when we were in Numbers 16 and we were looking at the story of Korah, but I'll just remind you, if you remember the Bible emphasizes the fact that Dathan and Abiram went down into the pit and their whole family, wives and children with them. But the Bible here in Numbers 26 goes out of its way to tell us, though Korah died, though Dathan and Abiram and all their children died, the children of Korah died not. Now, the assumption here is that the children of Korah were adults, and what's interesting is that though Korah was able to influence the majority of the children of Israel to rebel against Moses, though he was able to influence these men, Dathan and Abiram, and not just these men, but 250 princes. When the Bible used the word princess, it's talking about people in authority, people that are leaders. Korah, he was a bad guy, but he was obviously an influential man. He was able to get a lot of people to follow him in the wrong way and in the wrong path, but what's interesting is though he got Dathan and Abiram to follow him, though he got the 250 princes to follow him, though he got most of the children of Israel to sympathize with him, the Bible says that his children died not, meaning they were not judged with the sin of Korah because they did not follow Korah. The children of Korah, though other men followed Korah, the sons of Korah, the daughters of Korah, the children of Korah died not. They did not follow Korah, and if you're taking notes, maybe you'd like to jot this down. The first example we see here is we have an example of a bad parent who raised some good kids. It's just interesting to me that the Bible highlights here that sometimes you have a bad parent who raises good kids, and by the way, the children of Korah were good kids. Keep in place there Numbers 26, that's our text for this morning. Go with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 42. If you open your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely following the book of Psalms. Go to Psalm 42. Do me a favor, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're going to leave there, and we're going to come back to Psalms later on. I'd like you to be able to get there quickly. Psalm 42, look at verse 1. Psalm 42 in verse 1, the Bible says this, and what I want you to mainly focus on, if your Bible has headings, and I understand the headings are not completely in the originals and, you know, inspired or whatever, but I want you to notice if your Bible has a heading in Psalm 42, and there's lots of Psalms like this, I'm just going to show you a couple, the heading in my Bible says this, above Psalm 42, before verse 1. It says, to the chief musician, Maskel, for the sons of Korah. Now I want you to notice here that the Bible is telling us that many years later, the sons of Korah or the descendants of Korah actually wrote Psalm 42. That wasn't it. They wrote a lot of Psalms. You'll notice if you look at it in the book of Psalms, the sons of Korah wrote a lot of Psalms in the book of Psalms. Here's a beautiful Psalm, Psalm 42 verse 1, written by the sons of Korah, as the heart panteth after the water broke, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. And I'm not going to take the time to read the whole Psalm, but this was a Psalm written by the sons of Korah. Go to Psalm 84, look at verse 1, and like I said, there's lots of them. If you just flip through the book of Psalms and you have these headings, you'll notice that there's lots of Psalms that are written by the sons of Korah. Psalm 84, look at verse 1, to the chief musician upon Githith. Notice the heading if you have it, A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Now I want to point out this Psalm because it's interesting what these sons of Korah wrote. In verse 1 they said, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. Like you look down at verse number 10. Notice what the sons of Korah wrote in the book of Psalms, and keep that in mind within the context of Korah. Who was Korah? Korah was a man who was given a position by God, the position of a Levite, and he was not satisfied with that position. Korah said, and Korah thought, I should have a better position. I should have a higher position. I shouldn't just be a Levite, I should be a priest. He thought I shouldn't just be a priest, I should be the high priest. I should take the place of Aaron. I should take the place of Moses. This was a man who was not content with his position in the house, and in the lineage of God, in the tabernacle, and in the work of God. But here's what his sons wrote. Psalm 84 verse 10, For a day in my court is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. It's interesting that Korah says, I don't want to be a Levite. I want to be a priest. I want to be the high priest. And he led a rebellion against the men of God under that guise. But then his son, as they said, I'd be fine just being a doorkeeper. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Here's the first principle regarding parenting that I'd like you to notice. It is this, that sometimes bad parents raise good kids. It's interesting. It's interesting to me because we see it in Scripture, but if you look at anecdotal evidence, if you just survey parents and families and people, and this is something my wife and I do a lot. We observe different people and families, not just in our church, but just throughout our lives. I know of a family who every adult kid is in full time ministry. And I'm not saying that you have to be in full time ministry to be right with God or anything like that. I'm not saying that if you're not in full time ministry, you're not good or whatever. I'm not saying that at all. I don't think that children have to go into full time ministry. And I, you know, my desire for my children, if they go into full time ministry, I want them to do it because God placed that desire in their heart. And I don't feel like they need to do that. What I want is for my kids to serve God, love God, be faithful to church, whether it's full time ministry or working a secular job. What's interesting though about the family that I'm thinking about right now is every one of these kids, they're all in full time ministries. The boys are pastors. The daughter is married to a pastor in full time ministry. They're all, as far as I can tell, good people. They're serving the Lord. They love the Lord. They're faithful to church. But honestly, the parents were pretty worldly. And I look at that situation. I think to myself, how did this raise this? Like the most, one of the most worldliest families and parents in the church raised these kids that are all just serving the Lord, independent, fundamental Baptist, King James only, soul winners in ministry. And then I look at the story and I realize that sometimes Korah's raise good kids. We have an example of bad parents who raise good kids. Then I want you to notice the second example in this chapter. Keep your place there in Psalm, in the book of Psalms. We're going to come back to it. Go back to Numbers 26. Look at verse 19. Here we have another example. In the senses, in the midst of the senses, just sprinkled in are these stories of parents and their children. Numbers 26, 19. Look at it. The sons of Judah were Ur and Onan. And if you are familiar with the book of Genesis, Ur and Onan, the story of Judah and Ur and Onan are in the book of Genesis. The Bible says, An Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan. God in this census feels the need to not only highlight, hey Korah had some sons that died not in the plague. He says, and they became, he says Korah became a sign, but not withstanding the children of Korah died not. But then he tells us Judah had some sons who died in the land of Canaan. Now let's look at the story just real quickly. If you go back to the book of Genesis, first book in the Bible, Genesis 38. Look at verse 7. It should be fairly easy to find. Genesis 38 verse 7. Notice what the Bible says here. And Ur, Judah's firstborn, Genesis 38 verse 7, and Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him. Now that's all we're told. We're not given details as to what he did or what he did to upset God, but we're just told that Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and he was so wicked that the Lord slew him. Look at verse 8. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother. Look at verse 10. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So here we have two sons of Judah, Ur and Onan. Ur we're not told what he did, but he upset God so much the Bible tells us he was wicked in the sight of the Lord and God killed him. And then Onan upset God so much that he slew him also. And by the way, I don't have time to develop the story, but at this time in his life Judah is pretty wicked too. If you're familiar with the story, you'll know that he's just being deceptive and he's engaging with prostitution. He's doing things that he shouldn't be doing. Obviously later on in the life of Judah, he redeems himself and of course at the end of Genesis with the story of Joseph, he ends up redeeming himself and he becomes a good guy. He sacrifices or he's willing to sacrifice himself for his brother Joseph and we understand that. But at this time in Genesis 38, Judah himself is pretty wicked and then his sons, Ur and Onan, are wicked as well. They're so wicked that God kills them. So here's statement number two for you. Example number two. We saw number one that we have an example of bad parents who raise good kids, but number two we have an example of bad parents who raise bad kids. Because Judah was wicked and his sons were wicked. Now this makes sense to us. We would think well yeah I mean isn't that just how it's supposed to be? If you're a wicked parent then you're going to raise wicked children. And let me just say this about that, that obviously we're all sinners and look I'm not a psychologist up here and I'm not gonna sit here and say all your problems, you know, sit on my couch and tell me all the problems that your parents had, you know, and that's why you're crazy. Please understand something. That's a lie of the devil but every lie has a bit of truth in it. And the bit of truth that I would say is this, I believe in personal responsibility and personal accountability. I believe that you are responsible and accountable for your own actions no matter what home you were raised in, no matter how crazy your parents were. However with that said let me say this, you're crazy because your parents were crazy. I've been in ministry now for 13 years, my wife and I have been in ministry for 13 years. I feel like after 13 years of ministry we could write a sociology book because God has been putting us through a study of people for 13 years and I don't know how to say this and I'm not trying to offend you and I hope you understand my heart when I say this and I'm being kind of funny but at the same time, here's what I've learned about people, you're crazy. All of you, all of you are crazy. In fact I see it as my goal in life, my goal in ministry is just to make you normal. Now step number one when someone first shows up to church is just to try to make them normal and the exterior just so you stop looking and acting like a crazy person but don't let the nice clothes and the suits and the ties fool you, don't let these people with their nice haircuts and their nice vehicles fool you, they're crazy, all of them, all of you, you're all crazy and I'm sure I'm a little crazy too and you're probably crazy because your parents were crazy and I'm not blaming your parents but that should be a sobering thought, what are you doing to your own children is what you should be asking yourself. Now let me just say this, just because your parents were crazy, just because your dad was Cora doesn't mean you have to go down that road. You can break the chain of craziness and you can put off the the chains of bondage that have been on your family, look you don't have to submit yourself to generational curses, you can break that and say hey my dad Cora is crazy and he's got people following him but I'm not gonna follow him but that's a choice you have to make. So what we see is an example of good parents who raise good kids, an example of bad parents who, excuse me, bad parents who raise good kids and bad parents who raise bad kids and again I'm not trying to hurt your feelings I'm just telling you, you need to just have this understanding because the craziest of the crazies are the ones who don't think they're crazy and you should just have this understanding especially when you talk to like a pastor or a pastor's wife or some sort you should just come into it with this understanding I'm probably a little crazy and I need somebody to point that out to me that would be helpful because you're crazy I don't know how else to say it I wish the Holy Spirit would give me some better words but the only thing that I'm being inspired to say is some of you are crazy and you need a pastor to say hey that's not right stop doing that that's not you know that that's not normal normal people don't talk like that normal people don't act like that non crazy people don't think that way I'm just trying to help you you do what you want with it. Number one we have an example of bad parents who raise good kids, number two we have an example of bad parents who raise bad kids but I'd like you to notice there's a third example in this chapter go to go to numbers 26 numbers 26 look at verse 59 number 26 verse 59 and the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed. Jochebed is a name that only appears one time in the Bible and it's right here in numbers 26 verse 59 and the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed you say who's this lady the daughter of Levi whom her mother bear to Levi in Egypt and she bear unto Amram look at it Aaron and Moses and Miriam their sister Jochebed is the mother of Moses the mother of Aaron the mother of Miriam now of course Moses and Aaron and Miriam were not perfect they were sinners like anybody else but I would say this Jochebed must have been a pretty good mother and her husband Amram must have been a pretty good father in fact the Bible even tells us so go to Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament Hebrews chapter 11 if you start at the book of Revelation and you go backwards you have Jude third second and first John second and first Peter James and Hebrews revelation Jude third second first John second first Peter James you know let me just say this if you offend you're like I don't I don't appreciate perhaps you're telling me I'm crazy well that already shows a little bit of craziness that you even think that way but you know let me just say we should all have my wife and I often are joking like I wonder what we're crazy about that we don't see you know like I wonder what we're crazy about that we don't you know the good thing is that we have all of you to keep us sane because we're like oh make sure we don't do that Hebrews 11 look at verse 23 Hebrews 11 23 the Bible says this by faith Moses when he was born was hit three months look at the words here of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandments the Bible tells us here that Moses' parents they saw a potential in Moses they saw a future in Moses they were not afraid of the king's commandment this is at a time when it was illegal to have children and if you had a son he was to be killed by the commandment of Pharaoh but here we see that his parents by faith had children raised children and they did a pretty good job I mean they raised Moses they raised Aaron they raised Miriam of course these were not perfect people but these are some pretty great characters in the Bible I mean who would love to raise a Moses and here we see an example keep your place there in Hebrews I asked you to keep your place in Psalms I'm asking you keep your place in Hebrews go back to numbers here's example number three I said number one we have an example of bad parents who raise good kids number two we have an example of bad parents who raise bad kids number three we have an example of good parents who raise good kids now this is what we would think right well good parents raise good kids and bad parents raise bad kids but the truth is is that sometimes bad parents raise good kids and I'd like you to notice fourthly this morning when it comes to these examples go back to numbers 26 looking for 60 here's example number four and unto Aaron was born Nadab and Abihu a liaison and Ithamar Aaron had four kids Nadab Abihu a liaison Ithamar look at verse 61 and Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord remember the story in Leviticus where Nadab and Abihu they offer strange fire before the Lord and God kills them so Aaron had these two bad kids Nadab and Abihu who so upset God that God killed them but wait a minute that's not the whole story of Aaron's parenting because he also raised Eliezer and Eliezer ends up being the second high priest in the history of the nation of Israel he's the high priest that takes the reins after Aaron he's the high priest that partners with Joshua going into the Promised Land to help the children of Israel conquer the land Eliezer then raised a son named Phinehas who's Aaron's grandson and we just read about Phinehas and his zeal for the Lord and how he was so sold out to the things of God that he stopped a plague that God has sent due to fornication and God makes a covenant with Phinehas and says because of your zeal your family is going to be the priest in the Old Testament it's not gonna leave your family so with Aaron we have this example because you look at Aaron and you could make the example you could say he was a good was he a good parent or a bad parent you know I lean to the fact that he that there's no such thing as a good parent a bad parent I mean generally I think Aaron was probably a good a good parent but here's the thing he raised some bad kids they he raised of course his son's nate habanabahu but then he raised some good kids Eliezer Ithamar are good kids Eliezer raises Phinehas a good grandson and here we have an example that sometimes good parents raise bad kids and good kids in fact I would say it this way we have an example that a good and or bad parent raises both good and bad kids because Aaron raised nate habanabahu but he also raised Eliezer so we have one parent who raised both bad and good kids kids that were wicked and God killed them and kids that were righteous and God used them mightily and this should not convince us we see or confuse us we see this throughout the Bible go back to Genesis real quickly Genesis chapter 4 let me give you an example Genesis chapter 4 look at verse 1 Genesis chapter 4 verse 1 and Adam knew Eve remember Adam and Eve were they good parents or bad parents well they were probably a little bit of good a little bit of bad I would say they're probably mostly good but look what the Bible says and Adam and Eve and Adam Eve's wife and she conceived and bear look at this Cain and said I've gotten a man from the Lord and she again bear his brother Abel and Abel was the keeper of the sheep but Cain was a tiller to the ground look at verse 8 and Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him Cain and Abel Cain goes down in history as a wicked reprobate Jude says so second Peter says so but you know Abel goes down in history in the book of Hebrews he's highlighted that the blood of Abel that is compared to the blood of Christ and and and it's told that it's less than the blood of Christ that the blood of Christ speaketh better things in the blood of Abel but that the blood of Abel was righteous blood calling out for justice and that Abel was a good guy here's what's interesting about Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel is that Cain and Abel were raised in the same home Cain and Abel were raised by the same parents but yet the same parents raised a good kid Abel and a bad kid came by the way after the death of Abel okay Adam and Eve had another son named Seth he was a good kid the Bible says that when he started having influence among people that people called upon the name of the Lord as a result of his life and influence so here we see an example that good or bad parents sometimes raise good and bad kids go the New Testament book of Ephesians if you would Ephesians chapter number six you say pastor I don't really know what to do with what you just expressed to us I don't know that I really feel confident or encouraged well I'm not teaching you this morning how to raise good kids I'm just teaching you something that the Bible highlights for us and it's an observation that we should make about parenting not for parenting but about parenting the observation that we should make about parenting is this that sometimes bad parents raise good kids sometimes bad parents raise bad kids sometimes good parents raise good kids and sometimes good and bad parents raise good and bad kids I'm not asking you to do anything with that I just want you to have that I want you to be aware of that I want you to understand that those are four examples about parenting now if you don't mind I'd like to give you four principles about parenting and the four principles come from these four examples you need to understand the four examples of parenting to understand these four principles of parenting and maybe this will help you if you'd like you can jot these down as well principle number one parenting principle number one are you there in Ephesians chapter 6 looking verse 4 in the New Testament you have Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans first second grade these Galatians Ephesians I'm gonna ask you to just keep your place there in Ephesians I know you're keeping your place in Hebrews I know you're keeping place in Psalms keep your place in Ephesians also if you want those are the only three places I'm gonna ask you to keep your place in and we're gonna go to Psalms here in a minute but Ephesians chapter 6 look at verse 4 the Bible says this and you fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord here's principle number one for you all parents should strive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that should be your goal you say I'm a parent the Lord has blessed me with children or grandchildren or whatever it might be you know whatever season I find myself in whether you are have a newborn maybe or you have adult children or you have anywhere in between teenagers or whatever it might be you know what should the goal of a parent be the goal of a parent should be that they strive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord bring them up in the nurture and admonition the word nurture means to care nurture like to nourish or nurturing it means to care the word admonish means to reprimand and there should be a balance in the Christian home where we provide both care and correction let me tell you something when all you provide is care and you never correct your children remember when I said that you're all crazy because your parents some of you are crazy because all you got was care and no correction some of you are also crazy because all you got was correction and no care in the Christian home there should be care and correction there should be nurture and admonition there should be love and care and loving and hugs and I love you and and you love me but there should also be that's not right son that's not right daughter and correction and chastising you need both in the Christian home and the Christian parent should have a goal in their life to raise their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord go to Proverbs 22 Proverbs 22 if you kept your place in Psalms right after Psalms you have the book of Proverbs Proverbs 22 let me share another verse with you this should be your goal parenting principle number one all parents just strive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Proverbs 22 verse 6 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it this should be the goal of every Christian parent to train up a child in the way he should go now let me just say something about Proverbs 22 6 I have found that there are two extremes that people take on this verse that are both in my opinion wrong and they're both wrong because people tend to only want to see things through their own lens and and through a lens of pride and let me just help you understand this verse one extreme of the verse is train up a child in the way you should go and when he is old he will not depart from it is the fundamental Baptist who says my kids are gonna live for God bless God how can you say that so you know you don't even have any kids yet I mean literally people who have no kids my kids are gonna serve God they're gonna serve the Lord people have little children my kids are gonna do right and you say how can you how do you why do you why are you so confident well the Bible says train up a child in the way he should go let me just say this you ought to be careful about declaring what your kids will and will not do but then there's this other extreme this other extreme tries to cast shade on this verse the other extreme says well I know the Bible says train up a child the way he should go but I just don't know that that really works all the time and listen to me the Bible is the Word of God it is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God if God says it it's so if God says it it's true the Bible says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it you say well pastor then then how do we balance out these two extremes here's how you balance out the two extremes you realize that it is true if we train up a child in the way he should go when he is old he will not depart from it but we should also have enough humility to not assume that we are doing everything right and the training up of our children you understand what I just said to you see the person says my kids will serve God bless God because the Bible says train up a child that's making an assumption that you're doing everything right and I would just say don't ever bet on yourself because you're a sinner but at the same time don't allow your own sin and foolishness well I trained them up in the way they should go and they didn't turn out right so there must be something wrong with the Bible no there's nothing wrong with the Bible there's something wrong with you and there's something wrong with me because it's true if you train up a child in the way he should go he will not depart from it that is true but what is not true is that you're doing everything you're supposed to be doing right this is one of the prayers that my wife and I often have when it comes to our children is Lord if we're doing something wrong please help us to see it now don't have this or something well of course I'm doing everything right that's why you're crazy because you think you do nothing wrong cuz you think you have it all figured out that's crazy parenting principle number one all parents just drive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord but don't assume that you're doing it right and don't assume that the verse isn't true we should know that the verse is true train up a child in the way he should go and then we should do everything in our power to actually train up our children in the way they should go to actually train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and we should have the confidence that if I raise my children right and I raise them in the Lord then they will not depart from it but we should have the humility to say I hope I'm doing it alright and I'm willing to be corrected I'm willing to learn I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe I'm not the perfect parent because no one is so principle number one parenting principle all parents just strive to raise their children to the best of their ability in the nurture and admonition of the Lord let me give you another principle go to 1st Samuel chapter 2 1st Samuel and then you in the Old Testament from Numbers you have Deuteronomy Joshua judges Ruth then 1st Samuel 1st Samuel chapter 2 1st Samuel chapter 2 here's another kind of crazy parenting story 1st Samuel chapter 2 look at verse 12 notice what the Bible says now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial Belial is the devil when the Bible calls somebody a son of Belial it means they're a reprobate the Bible says now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord and by the way the Bible actually tells us in this instance what was Eli's problem is that he failed to restrain his children let me just say this parents at the very least you ought to love them you ought to care for them you ought to correct them you ought to communicate all those things but at the very least when those kids are living in your home you ought to restrain them if you restrain them as children you won't have to put a restraining order on them when they're adults Bible says now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial or they won't be restrained by someone else with handcuffs they knew not the Lord look at verse 17 wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord and by the way these young men end up dying as a result of their sin so here's what we see is that Eli who's a high priest by the way raised some bad kids wait a minute wait a minute before you judge Eli too hard let us remember this 1st Samuel chapter 3 look at verse 1 1st Samuel 3 verse 1 the sons of Eli Eli did not only raise his own sons he raised another character in the Bible you might recognize the name 1st Samuel 3 and verse 1 and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli and the word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open vision if you remember the story of Hannah Hannah was barren she prayed for a child and she promised she said to the Lord if you give me a child I will return the child unto you and God gave Hannah a baby boy named Samuel and if you remember Hannah took Samuel to the house of Lord and allowed Eli to raise him Eli who raised two reprobates but then raised Samuel who is one of the greatest men in the Bible one of the greatest prophets in the Bible one of the greatest men of the God in the Bible Samuel raised by Eli who also raised two reprobates and I think God what are you trying to show us and I think what God is trying to show us is that sometimes good and bad parents raise both good and bad kids I think another another application here or just thought is this that when we are parenting our children we're all doing it for the first time and if you got a chance to do it again you might do a better job with it because Eli raised Samuel Samuel is a great man of God you know what's interesting about this story let's just keep going down the line go to first Samuel chapter 8 okay so Eli raises two reprobates but then he also raises Samuel who's a great man of God then Samuel first Samuel 8 and verse 1 and it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel verse 3 and his sons walked not in his ways but turned aside after lucre that's money there they're going after bribes and took bribes and perverted judgment here's what's interesting Eli who raised two reprobates also raised Samuel who's one of the greatest men in the Bible and then Samuel raised two crooked kids that had no character integrity they took bribes and they perverted judgment and I'm just telling you sometimes good people raise bad kids and sometimes bad people raise good kids and sometimes good slash bad parents raise good slash bad kids I'm giving you principal parenting as I said number one all parents should strive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord here's principal parenting number two all parents should understand that children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will let me say that again all parents should understand that children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will see when it comes to parenting and let me just say it this way when it comes to any sort of relationship whether it's husband or wife parents or children employee and employers whatever it is it takes two to tango you can't say well I did everything right first of all you don't know that you did everything right but even if you did even if you did everything right even if you were the best parent even if you were the greatest man of God greatest woman of God in the Bible they those children that you're raising they have to make a decision for themselves we're not Calvinists here everyone has free will and mom and dad you need to realize that all all parents should understand that their children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will now here's what you can control you can control what they do when they're under your authority but when they're on outside of your authority look we all want our children to live for God and do right and serve the Lord we all want that but we should understand that we cannot force that because every person has to make a decision for themselves and what parents need to understand look I'm not trying to teach you how to parent that I've preached a lot of sermons on that and I will continue to preach sermons I'm just trying to help some of you get a good understanding about principles for parenting and principles of parenting are this you should do everything in your power to train up these children and the nurture and admonition Lord train them up in the way they should go you should do everything in your power to do that don't be so prideful to think you're already doing it and and ask God to help you in that but with that said let's also remember that children will grow up and have free will and make their own decisions which is why the sons of Korah though they were raised by a rebellious bad person said I'm gonna live for God why'd they say that because they wanted to and other examples where they were raised by great parents said I'm gonna go to the world why'd they say that maybe they could have been raised better but at the end of day they have free will they have accountability they have responsibility so principle for parenting number one is this all parents should strive to raise their children the best they can in the nurture and admonition of Lord principle parenting number two is this all parents should understand that children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will go to Romans chapter 14 if you would if you kept your place in Ephesians in the New Testament if you go backwards you go past the book of Galatians past 2nd and 1st Corinthians into the book of Romans past Ephesians past Galatians past 2nd and 1st Corinthians into the book of Romans Romans chapter 14 Romans chapter 14 I'd like you to look at this look at verse 4 this isn't even a parenting verse but it's just a verse with principles in general and I want to apply it to parenting Romans chapter 14 verse 4 who art thou that judges another man's servant and here we're talking about a master and servant relationship but it could be any position of authority an employer with an employee a pastor with church people a parent with children who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be hold enough for God is able to make him stand God says look who do you think you are to judge somebody else's servant to his own master to his own authority he standeth or falleth here's principle parenting number three all parents should decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward did you hear what I just said all parents should decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward you say why because everyone struggles with their kids from time to time it's interesting to me how everybody who everyone's an expert in the area they're not in right people with no kids they I wouldn't let my toddler like you don't have any children yeah but if I had children my toddler would be and then people with toddler well I wouldn't let my older child do you don't have any older children yeah but I wouldn't let them and then and then kids with with with parents with children they're like my teenager would never you don't have any teens yeah but I would never let my teenager and look this is human nature it's human nature I mean literally I'm writing this sermon I'm like working on this sermon I'm studying these things out and somebody came to me and started telling me about a situation regarding adult children of somebody else not in our church a different situation they're asking for advice and I caught myself even in my own mind I've got teens in my home teens and down I don't have any adult children and I caught myself in my own mind starting to say well I would never allow my adult children and then I had to stop myself and I didn't say it out loud it's just a thought the thought of foolishness and that's just taught myself and tell myself wait a minute I don't have any adult children I don't know what those dynamics are like so before I start getting all high and mighty of what I would do with my adult so I don't have any adult children and here's all I'm telling you is you have to be careful before you start judging people in situations that you're not involved in and all parents all parents should decide not to judge or criticize other parents because let me let you know a little secret every parent will struggle with a child from time to time everyone will so who are thou that judges another man's servants to his own master he standeth her follows and you can sit there say well they didn't do everything right well you don't know that maybe they did everything right and that child is just rebellious and exercising free will and being a cane who was raised next to an able or maybe they were a bad parent and they didn't do everything they were supposed to do right and for some odd reason their kids just turned out right anyway because that child decided to live for God the point is this you and I don't know so I'm just telling you parenting principle number three you ought to decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward say well what about when when kids in the church when they turn from God and they turn away and they go wayward what should our response be your response should be I'll pray for you I'm sorry you're dealing with that I'll pray for you I'm sorry you're having to deal with that struggle I'll pray for your son I'll pray for your daughter and I'm not gonna stand here in judgment and criticize you because every parent from time to time struggles with their children everyone has a hard time with their kids from time to time and especially especially if you're not in that stage please just look if you don't have teenagers please honestly just shut your mouth when it comes to giving advice about teenagers you know nothing and if you don't have adult children just shut your mouth about what I would and could not do you'll end up eating those words principle parenting number three is this all parents should decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward because everyone struggles from time to time with their kids go to James chapter 5 if you kept your place in Hebrews remember your place in Hebrews right after Hebrews you have the book of James James chapter 5 let me give you the fourth principle we'll be done I gave you four examples what were they number one we have an example of bad parents who raise good kids number two we have an example of bad parents who raise bad kids number three we have an example of good parents who raise good kids number four we have an example of good and or bad parents who raise both good and bad kids what can we learn from that that observation the principles we learn are this all parents just strive to raise their children in the nursery and admonition of the Lord don't assume that you're doing it right but don't assume that the Bible isn't true either number two all parents should understand that children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will there's two parts to this relationship and you know I'm not assume that you're doing it all right but even if you do do it all right they still have to make a choice number three all parents should decide and I said all parents but let me just say everyone should decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward because everyone struggles from time to time with their kids James chapter 5 look at verse 9 grudge not against another brethren lest ye be condemned behold I love this little phrase here the judge standeth before the door so what does that mean the judge stands before the door the idea is this that in life we are going through this race the Bible says to run the race that is set before us we're going through this hallway this corridor got called life and as we travel down this corridor there's a door at the end of this door at this life called death and the judge will meet us there Hebrews says it this way as it is appointed unto men wants to die but after this the judgment you know what's interesting to me is that the God of heaven the God of the universe the creator of all mankind the omnipotent almighty omniscient you understand I'm saying all-powerful God the God of the universe waits to judge you and I at the end of our lives and all I'm saying is this if God feels the need to wait to the end of someone's life to judge them maybe you should too if God feels the need to wait and as it is appointed unto man wants to die but after this the judge if God feels the need to wait to the end of someone's life to judge them I'm not saying correct them I'm not saying go to them and say hey that's not right if they're under your authority or whatever I'm not talking about that I'm just saying I'm saying this parenting principle number four all parents should remember that this chapter is not the last chapter in your child's story whatever you're going through you say this toddler is so difficult this teenager is so rebellious I've got an adult child that's breaking my heart pastor you know you should never give up on your kids you know why because God hasn't given up on them yet and what we should remember as parents is this that this chapter this chapter is not the last chapter in our children's story so never give up don't give up on your kids go to Psalm 127 if you go back to Psalms we're gonna finish there Psalm 127 even God withholds judgment until the end so shouldn't you I've told you recently that a pastor that from the old IFB that I'm not gonna sit here and say that he is perfect in any way shape or form but I respected him I feel like he influenced my life a man by the name of Clarence Sexton died several months ago and my wife and I were tuning in to his funeral and at his funeral they had his adult children speak and one of those adult children who's now in their 50s stood up and shared and said this is a pastor's kid a pastor's son pastor of a large church thousands of people big ministry he said when I was in my 20s I went away from the Lord he said I rebelled against my parents and I rebelled against God and he gave this testimony of his father at his father's funeral he said my father loved me back to Christ and I just think that we should remember that this chapter is not the last chapter of your children's story don't give up even when they go astray when they go away where don't give up even if others criticize you and say you must have done something wrong don't give up because God has not given up on your children and neither should you Psalm 127 like you to look at this passage Psalm 127 I was gonna read a couple of verses but you know I'd like to just read the entire psalm it's not long Psalm 127 and I'd like you to read this in the context of what we've learned this morning what have we learned we've learned that sometimes bad parents raise good kids and sometimes bad parents raise bad kids and sometimes good parents raise good kids and sometimes good and or bad parents raise good and bad kids and the principles that we should gather from that observation and are this and all parents should strive to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that all parents should understand that children will eventually make their own decisions and exercise free will all parents should decide not to judge or criticize other parents when their kids go wayward because everyone struggles from time to time with their kids and all parents should remember that this chapter is not the last chapter in your children's story so never give up never give up Psalm 127 says this except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that building except the Lord keep the city the watchman wake it but in vain it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows for so he giveth his beloved sleep lo children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward as arrows are in the hands of a mighty man so are the children of the you happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemies in the game let's bow our heads and have a word of Heavenly Father Lord I understand that I did not give a lot of practical applicable advice here's what to do with your children and here's how to do it I preach sermons like that in the past and I will continue to do so I think this morning it was best for us to just understand some things about parenting and though we must do our best we must do our best we need to also remember that these kids have free will they've got a responsibility as well they've got to decide to serve God and love God and look for God as well Lord I pray you'd help us to do our best but I pray you'd help us to also understand that kids will make their own decisions and they will exercise free will help us not to criticize others we're struggling with their children because we will all struggle from time to time and help us to always remember that if our children are saved if they belong to you then whatever stage they find themselves in that chapter is not the last chapter in their story thank you for never giving up on us help us never to give up on our kids in the matchless name of Christ we pray amen well let me give you just a couple of notes real quickly as we end this morning we're gonna have brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song but just want to remind you of a couple of things first of all I want to encourage you to be back tonight at 6 p.m. for the evening service and tonight I'm really excited about the sermon that I'm preaching tonight I'm preaching a sermon out of numbers chapter 27 the next chapter on the subject of the daughters of Zelophehad and tonight we're gonna be looking at this idea of women's rights and women's status as taught in the Bible and there's a lot of attacks against the Bible as being a book that diminishes the status of women and I think that tonight you'll be very enlightened by what the Bible teaches and what we can learn from the story the daughters of Zelophehad so I encourage you to be back tonight 6 p.m. even if you don't normally come on a Sunday night we encourage you to be here the most exciting service of the week and then of course I just want to remind you that if you've not yet looked at your name on the nine chapters a day clipboard back there please make sure you go by there and check it check it off if it's right fix it if it's wrong and help us with that so we can go ahead and get the plaque made and then also I just want to encourage you if you would not mind to keep my wife in prayer and just pray that that the pain would subside and that the swelling would go down that she'll be able to walk and of course she misses you all very much she wants to be in church and we appreciate your help in regards to that if there's anything we can do for you please let us know why brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song turn the song 202 my redeemer song 202 on the first to set me free Oh Oh I Oh sing it out on the last Oh hey man good scene before you before we leave here if anybody has questions about salvation church membership or baptism past will be at the door I'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to talk to you about that brother Matt would you close a prayer for us amen you